


When the Sun Finally Sets

by kohakuyume94



Category: Naruto
Genre: Happy Ending, Late Birthday Presents, M/M, Retirement, We Don't Deserve Tenzo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-17
Updated: 2019-09-17
Packaged: 2020-10-20 08:42:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,986
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20672501
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kohakuyume94/pseuds/kohakuyume94
Summary: At last at the end of his term as Hokage, Kakashi is met with the offering of a present, and the hope of peace, comfort, and bliss that has eluded him all his life.





	When the Sun Finally Sets

**Author's Note:**

> My short, likely sloppy, late piece in honor of Kakashi's birthday. 
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

To say it’d been a long day would have been far beyond an understatement. The long day had started when Kakashi was a child, burdened with grief and responsibility too heavy for even the strongest adult to bear. The battle, the heartache, the desperate grind of it all through his life had stretched every moment taut, and the labor of each step had brought him far beyond fatigued, and far beyond the ability to realize that somehow, at last, the endlessness of his unyielding efforts was coming to a close.

Twilight had finally fallen, and the shinobi, now-former Hokage sat once more in front of the Memorial Stone, bottle of sake in his hand, still holding tension through his slouched shoulders.

His eyes had closed. He didn’t need to see the stone, or the names of his fallen comrades anymore. He only wanted to be in the presence of their memory.

The wind changed, and a subtle, ever-familiar scent tickled his nostrils, a smirk breaking beneath a masked sigh.

“You know I’m not Hokage anymore. You don’t need to guard me any longer, Tenzo.”

Yamato emerged from the tree-line, his own smile blooming as he crossed to stand behind his long-time Senpai.

“I know,” he said. “I suppose it will take a while for the habit to die.”

Kakashi snorted, amused.

“I didn’t want to intrude,” Yamato continued. “I can go.”

“Stay, please.”

The two settled close in the grass, a silent comfort falling as their breath found the same, slow draw, and Kakashi offered over his bottle of sake.

A swig down his throat and Yamato opened his mouth.

“I turned in my resignation today.”

Kakashi’s eyes widened, and Yamato turned to meet him.

“I figured, if you could finally retire, it would be alright to hand down my own torch.”

“I’m very glad. You deserve rest, Tenzo.”

Their eyes held, along with a small breath, and each man found themselves leaning slightly inward.

“Do you think,” Yamato murmured softly. “You might allot some of that rest for yourself?”

A crooked smile cracked beneath Kakashi’s mask as he turned to lean back on his hands, head falling back to look up into a dimming sky.

“Mah, you know I’ve never been good of that.”

“No,” Yamato sighed. “I suppose you haven’t.

He threw back another gulp of sake, turning his attention to the Memorial Stone.

“I did have something for you that I thought might help, if you were interested.”

Kakashi’s eyes peeked back over to Yamato, curious and flattered. Through the cool grass, his hand wriggled, inching itself over, behind Yamato, until their shoulders brushed. Instinctively, Yamato leaned into the touch, and once more, their gaze met.

“I meant it as a birthday present,” Yamato continued. “But it wasn’t ready. So, it’s a retirement present.”

Kakashi nearly laughed, something like a giddy disbelief bubbling through his stomach. His head shook slightly, eyes no longer able to hold the intense warmth of Yamato’s, and words caught behind his drying mouth.

_“This is already too much for me…” _

“Come,” Yamato insisted gently with a nudge to Kakashi’s shoulder. “Let me show you. Then you can decide if you don’t want it.”

He stood, taking a last swallow of sake before offering the bottle back to Kakashi.

“You didn’t bring it with you?”

“Uh,” Yamato stammered, stifled laugh straining his smile. He rubbed a hand to the back of his neck. “No, it’s a little big for that.”

Once more, Kakashi’s eyes widened. He wasn’t much for gifts, never knowing how to respond, what to say, or how others wanted him to react. Then, of course, he always felt terribly indebted afterwards. Remembering birthdays, holidays, and details of the like had hardly been a strong-suit for the nin. He’d hardly remembered his birthday had even passed within the last month. Of course, he mused, Yamato had not been one to forget. Nor was he one to let the occasion go by without some manner of kind, personal gesture.

Dreading that this gift had been too huge to carry, Kakashi drained the last of his sake bottle, and pulled to his feet. His head dizzied, chest heating, as Yamato’s smile grew and he began to lead Kakashi toward the fading sun.

They walked for quite some time, a quiet tension budding, as it often did between them. Any other night, and it might have meant a sharp turn into shadow, a silent, hurried dive into frenzied kisses and aggressively desperate sex. They'd known, since they were young men, that any kind of real relationship stood on the other side of duty, through decades of their own emotional baggage.

_"Later,"_ their eyes would promise each other through undone kisses and inseparable embrace._"Someday."_

Tonight, the both of them finally retired and the shinobi world at peace, was the first night that "someday" offered itself to the pair of them as a miraculous, and nerve-wrecking reality.

Their hands brushed as they walked, and the pair pulled in closer to each other’s side as they carried on, avoiding main roads and the many citizens who would surely stop their former-Kage to offer glowing greetings and unwanted interruption. As their stroll stretched on, and they started to reach the outskirts of the city, Kakashi’s concerned wonder for what on earth this gift could possibly be started to work a slight sweat across his crinkled forehead.

When they at last broke through the thick covering of trees, having crossed into one of the Village's many, dense, outlying forests, Kakashi’s breath caught, heart dropping into the depths of his churning stomach.

“I… Tenzo…” he stammered, completely at a loss for comprehension. “This is…”

Yamato only offered a meek smile, tentative and lit with small wash of pink to his cheeks.

“Happy birthday-retirement, Senpai…”

Kakashi found he was holding his breath, struck to the soles of his shoes in complete shock. Surely, he had to be dreaming. He must’ve fallen asleep drinking too much by the Memorial Stone, and some kind of beautiful fantasy had whisked him away to this reality. He found any other explanation far too incomprehensible.

Before his unblinking eyes stood a large cottage home, tall, wooden, wrapped in ivy and nestled in the shaded shadow of towering trees. Flowers lined the windows, and soft, flickering light glowed from within, promising deep comfort, and the warm embrace of needed respite.

But, somehow, that wasn’t all. Stretching out in front of the stunning woodland cottage lay the clear, calm of a lily-filled pond. Fireflies started their luminous dance, bringing Kakashi’s attention to the gentle sway of willow branches that drooped in a perfect canopy over an intricately carved reading bench just at the edge of the waters.

“Would you like to look around?” Yamato said finally.

Kakashi could only continue to stare, his knees growing weak, and a sting starting through his eyes.

“Come, let me show you...”

Slow, and a bit shy, Yamato brushed his fingers over Kakashi’s, startling the former-Kage enough to suck in a breath, and thread their hands tight.

If he’d thought the cottage had been lovely from the outside, there’d been no way to prepare him for the simple perfection that was the inside. A full, open kitchen. A crackling fireplace in front of a comfy couch. An enormous, inviting bed. An in-wall bookshelf surrounding a cushioned nook by a window. An adjoining room filled with enough dog beds, bowls and toys for all of his ninken, and then some. And bathroom with a standing shower, water to fall from above like rain.

Through his tour, Kakashi stayed silent, completely lost in his disbelieving awe. There was no way that this could be true, that this could be his, a gift, something that he could accept.

But, Yamato, holding tight to his Senpai’s hand, was far from finished, and, leading the pair of them out the back door and into his eden.

Moon Vines bloomed large across a wooden arch that opened into a most immaculate garden. Fern and flora flourished in abundance, rich in color and vibrant perfume, outlining, in the center, a steaming hot spring.

Kakashi’s hand fell limp, free of Yamato’s, and he crossed wordlessly to observe the most inconceivable of it all. Around the spring, tucked between blossoms and bushes, stood a collection of wooden statues, each of them a recreation of Kakashi’s most precious photographs. His former childhood team, Minato-Sensei smiling wide behind them. His own team, Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura, all so young and small. His father and mother, a tiny baby bundle between their arms. His ninken pack. He and Gai as children, Gai’s arm locked tight and affectionate around his neck. The complete team seven, with Yamato and Sai, on the day of Kakashi’s inauguration as Hokage.

Each statue had been hand-formed with such a meticulous dedication to detail, perfect likenesses of each photo brought off the page, life-sized and lacquered to shine.

Kakashi raised a hand over his already covered mouth and nose, his body shaking and breath a thin shudder.

“Kakashi, if they’re too much...” Yamato whispered softly from over the his Senpai’s shoulder. “I didn’t mean for it to make you upset...”

“If they’re too much...”

Kakashi looked to his feet, vision clouding with foreign heat.

_“Of course_ they’re too much... _It’s all_ too much...”

A sob broke with his next breath, a gasp that startled him and choked through his throat.

_“Why?”_ He demanded, turning to meet Yamato’s shrinking gaze. “Why would you do this for me? How long did you work? How much did you-"

He growled as he realized tears had wet his cheeks. Swiping an angry arm to wipe them away, Kakashi demanded a last time, this time in a broken cry, “Why, Tenzo...”

Yamato’s shoulders softened, and he said nothing as he closed the distance between them. He reached a hand up to catch Kakashi’s cheek, calloused thumb gently wiping at fresh tears.

“I tried to tell you,” he whispered. “I thought you deserved some rest, too.”

Without another thought, Kakashi’s mask was at his neck, mouth crashing into Yamato’s, overwhelming the both of them before the pair melted together in a slow, sweet tangle.

“You really like it?” Yamato asked in the brief pause of their affections. “You don’t have to live here. I know you have your apartment in the the center of town. I just wanted you to have a space for whatever you wanted it to be, whether that-"

“I am moving in right now. I will go and get all my things in the morning. How could I _possibly_ live anywhere else? Tenzo, this is- I mean, you’ve-you’ve built me this-this... it's-" 

He cut off his own ramble, making far better use of his mouth against his beloved's, hands stroking up Yamato's back, through his hair, over his jawline.

They’d barely broken for air, foreheads and noses still nuzzled close, when Kakashi asked in a desperate pant, “Stay with me?”

“Tonight?”

“Every night. Always.”

Yamato exhaled a disbelieving laugh.

“I know I have no right to ask anything of you, ever. I never have, and I certainly don’t now... You’ve given your life in service, and I have the audacity to stand here and ask more of you... But, please, I’d like to try and spend the rest of my days proving my gratitude... Stay...” 

Another tear slipped free from the corner of his eye, this one with his full, joyous consent. 

“Besides," he continued, barely audible. "I’ll end up killing all the plants without you...”

“Okay,” Yamato smiled, utterly breathless, now the one to believe he had to be dreaming. “For the plants...”

A short chuckle passed between them, drowned out as their mouths met again, arms tightening their bodies closer, and not parting again for some time, the moon having risen to light at last on their "someday," and the true ease of peaceful night.


End file.
